Rite Aid Closing Stores and Selling Pharmacy Assets to Rivals

Rite Aid is reportedly closing additional stores while handing off business to rivals.

The drugstore chain, which recently filed for bankruptcy for the second time, has revealed 95 locations it wants to shut down, Fast Company reported, citing a court filing.

The locations are spread across six states, but are primarily based in Rite Aid’s home state of Pennsylvania, where the company plans to close more than 70 stores. In total, Rite Aid has targeted 210 stores for closure, the report said.

The filing came one day after Rite Aid said it had reached agreements to sell prescription files for more than 1,000 pharmacy locations, nearly all of its stores, with CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, Kroger, and Giant Eagle among the successful bidders.

CVS is set to take over “many” pharmacy locations in Washington state, Oregon and Idaho. CVS said it plans to purchase prescription files for 625 locations but that it was only taking over 64 physical Rite Aid stores.

Rite Aid announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 5, less than a year after emerging from an earlier restructuring effort.

The company’s previous filing came in October of 2023, with Rite Aid attempting to reduce approximately $2 billion in debt and closing around 850 stores, with lenders ultimately taking control of the business.

Rite Aid emerged from that bankruptcy in September, saying it was in a stronger position with “significantly less debt and additional financial resources.”

Speaking with PYMNTS the following month, then-CMO Jeanniey Walden said the financial difficulties experienced during the bankruptcy acted as powerful “silo busters,” driving departments to overcome their divisions and collaborate to reach company objectives.

Walden also noted the company was adapting its offerings and pricing strategies to cater to paycheck-to-paycheck consumers, a demographic spanning nearly all income levels.

“We appreciate the economic situation of our shoppers and communities,” she said, noting that Rite Aid had adjusted product selections and was reviewing pricing to meet local needs.

However, those adjustments may not have been enough. Rite Aid said in its bankruptcy filing that its difficulties stemmed in part from lower-income shoppers’ trade-down behavior.

Marc Liebman, Rite Aid’s chief transformation officer, noted in the filing “a structural shift in its market, primarily resulting from changed customer behavior,” saying that “low- and fixed-income consumers” had shifted to buying household goods from more affordable retailers.

Research from PYMNTS Intelligence has shown that a wide majority of shoppers change their behaviors in times of economic distress. In a 2024 study, just 16% of consumers said perceived inflation had not affected their consumption when purchasing retail products.